Name Games: A Mark Manning Mystery - Hardcover

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Mark Manning has not escaped murder and mayhem by moving to Dumont, WI, and taking over the local newspaper. Just as a regional exhibition of miniature furniture is about to begin, someone murders the visiting expert. Suspicion falls on the sheriff, a closeted gay, so Mark helps out. A well-written and engaging addition to the series.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When the "king of miniatures," Carrol Cantrell, is strangled to death before the opening of a dollhouse craft show in Dumont, Wis., journalist Mark Manning discovers that his sleepy town is packed with suspects in this melodramatic gay cozy. A scarf at the murder scene points to Cantrell's arch rival, who vowed to topple his foe, but was conveniently out of town the night of the murder. A blackmail note on a laptop points to the closeted sheriff, who was sleeping with the victim. That Cantrell was also an expert defense witness in several pornography cases makes his early demise fortunate for the odd team of the local DA and an antisex feminist, who are trying to rid the town of its sole porn store. And what about the respected town elder whose car was spotted outside that same porn shop? Although this is the fourth Manning mystery, the evolving characters of the hero's architect partner, Neil, and their teenage ward, Thad, are still underdeveloped. But at least they're sympathetic, unlike "feminazi" Miriam Westerman, a villainess so hissably over-the-top one marvels at Craft's restraint in not throwing in flying monkeys. And what feminist would create an organization with the acronym FSNACH? Manning's primness--he only has homoerotic thoughts only while asleep--also strains credulity. Craft's habit of recapping the action every time a new character enters the plot may irritate seasoned mystery readers, who are bound to have guessed the killer's identity long before Manning gathers together all the suspects for one last recap. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The murder of a world-renowned expert in the world of miniatures on the eve of Dumont's first miniature show spurs the informal investigation of Mark Manning, Craft's series sleuth and the gay publisher of the Dumont Register. Manning's interest becomes more than professional once his friend, the local sheriff, is "outed" as a gay man and made the chief suspect in the case by his rival candidate for his office, Deputy Dan. Meanwhile, the wily D.A. is eager to nail someone for the crime to ensure reelection, supported by Miriam Westerman, the gay-hating founder of a local feminist organization who once challenged Mark for custody of Thad, his teen nephew. With lover Neil, Mark's made a home for Thad, so the disruption of a local First Amendment/antiporn suit somehow bound up with the murder threatens to upset all aspects of the newspaperman's life. The newspaper staffers and the small town's doctor-beyond-reproach round out the cast of characters in a welcome addition to the ranks of gay mysteries. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Even though gay reporter Mark Manning’s left Chicago behind, the editor/publisher of Wisconsin’s Dumont Daily Register finds life in the slow lane more eventful than he could have expected. Not only has local shopkeeper Grace Lord succeeded in attracting miniatures-king Carrol Cantrell, “a very big man in a very small world,” to Dumont to judge the exhibits in the Midwest Miniatures Society’s annual convention, but Mark and his close-knit allies are nervously watching the progress of an anti-porn bill spearheaded by opportunistic D.A. Harley Kaiser and that gay-baiting harpy Miriam Westerman, who almost wrecked Mark’s plan to adopt his orphaned cousin, Thad Quatrain, in Body Language (1999). The incongruous worlds of miniatures and pornography collide with a crash of tiny furniture when Cantrell is murdered—and soon after unmasked as the founding owner of Hot Head Video productions. Determined to shield barely uncloseted sheriff Douglas Pierce, who’d spent the preceding three nights with Cantrell, from suspicion as his killer, Mark keeps returning obsessively to the same short list of suspects—County Commissioner Dr. Benjamin Tenelli, who’s just warned that the local porn shop will frighten off tourists; Lt. Dan Kerr, the underling who wants Doug’s job; Miriam Westerman; and Grace Lord—and ignoring the obvious tip-offs: his steamy dreams and the school play Thad’s tried out for. Craft sprinkles clues of every sort so generously, in fact, that most readers will find his latest outing a hundred pages too long. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.